Ephesus Training grounds of verulanus

These athletic training grounds, connected to the harbor gymnasium, but today covered with grass, are on the north side of the harbor Street (Arkadiane). Colonnaded galleries surrounded a palaestra which measured 200 by 240 meters, the so-called Training Grounds of Verulanus. This palaestra, which extended from the theater gymnasium to the
harbor gymnasium, had a beautiful gate with five passageways, which faced the Arkadiane. The ruins of it are stili visible. It also had a path that connected it to the gymnasium, which lay to the northwest. The galleries had three rows of columns, and their floors were paved with marble.
The chief priest of the province of Asia, Verulanus, built this complex during the reign of Hadrian (117-138 CE).

It is striking that the Ephesians set aside so much space in the city çenter for the athletic training of its youth. This shows the high value placed on education in the Roman empire. HARBOR BATHS (MAİN BATHS): This is located west of the harbor gymnasium, and is, of course, connected with it. This is one of the largest structures in Ephesus, and takes up a plot of land that measures 160 by 170 meters. Research has shown that many of its halls had a height of 28 meters. The eastern part that faces the gymnasium contains a long, narrow hail provided with niches. In the middle of the baths is the frigidarium, with its oval svvimming pool that measures 30 meters in length. Oversized supporting columns, 11 meters tall, done in pink and gray, carried the artistically designed vaulted brick ceiling. A number of statues were found in this room, the bases of which are stili in their original places.

The warmest room of the baths, the calldarium, and the lukewarm room, the tepidarium, are situated further west, where the excavations are not yet complete.

The harbor baths and gymnasium were probably built at the same time. The baths, constructed in the second century, which saw an efflorescence of building projects in Ephesus, were rebuilt with an altered floorplan after a major earthquake during the reign of Constantine II (337-361 CE).